


Shifting Gears

by eternaleponine



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Accidental Stimulation, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Clexa Week 2018, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-24 22:16:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13820550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternaleponine/pseuds/eternaleponine
Summary: Clexa Week 2018 - Day 4 - Accidental StimulationIt's the start of spring break, and Clarke's car has decided to quit.  Lexa offers to give her a ride home.  In the middle of an epic traffic jam, things gets a little... heated.





	Shifting Gears

"I really appreciate you doing this," Clarke said, for the third – or was it fourth? – time. 

"It's not a problem," Lexa replied for the third – or was it fourth? – time. Maybe not exactly the same words, but the sentiment was the same. Then, her eyes flicking over to Clarke's for a second before going back to the road, "You don't have to keep saying it."

"I do, though," Clarke said. "I need to get home, and—"

"It's on my way," Lexa told her. Again. "You would do the same if our positions were reversed." 

Clarke bit the inside of her cheek, wondering if that was actually the case. She knew Lexa from around campus; she was kind of hard to miss, especially when it seemed like half of the students thought the sun rose and set with her, and the other half hated her with an equal passion. But they weren't friends. They might have exchanged a nod or a smile, maybe even a hello, in passing in the lobby of the dorm where they both lived, but that was all.

It wasn't the kind of relationship that warranted an offer to drive Clarke home for break when she discovered, after loading everything into her car, that it wouldn't start. It didn't actually come as a shock; she'd been having trouble with it all semester. She'd just hoped that she would be able to nurse it through one final trip, and then convince her parents who help her finance a new one. 

But that's exactly what Lexa had done, when she'd caught Clarke slamming the hood shut and kicking one of the tires, her eyes filled with tears of anger and frustration. She just wanted to get home. Her father was sick, but had insisted that she not miss any classes, that it wasn't that dire. The pinched note in her mother's voice any time the topic came up told her otherwise. He wasn't going to _die_ (Clarke hoped... prayed, except she wasn't the praying kind) but she still wanted to be there with him to help him through it. 

"Everything all right?" she'd asked, even though it was obvious that it wasn't.

"Fucking car," Clarke had said. "Stupid fucking—"

"Where are you headed?"

"Nowhere now," Clarke had spat, pounding her fist against the sideview mirror... which promptly snapped off and hit the ground. " _Fuck!_ "

"Where _were_ you headed?" Lexa had asked. 

"Home."

To her credit, Lexa hadn't rolled her eyes. "Where is home?" 

Clarke told her, not sure why Lexa was asking or why she was answering, but at this point she was so far beyond being in her right mind that she didn't even really think about it. 

"You're in luck," Lexa had said. "That's on my way. We'll just get your stuff moved over to—"

"You don't have to do that," Clarke had said. "I'll figure something out."

"I know," Lexa had replied. "I know I don't have to, and I know that you would figure something else out if you had to. But you don't, because I'm offering, so why don't you just save us both a lot of time and trouble and say yes?" Her smile had taken any possible sting out of the words, and within a few minutes they had everything moved from Clarke's trunk into Lexa's back seat (the trunk being occupied by her own stuff) and were on the road.

"Shit," Lexa muttered, tapping the brake as traffic around them slowed... and then stopped. "Hopefully it's nothing major," she said. 

"Hopefully," Clarke agreed. 

A few minutes later, though, and they still hadn't moved. Lexa worked her phone out of her pocket, which involved a fair amount of wiggling and squirming that Clarke tried not to pay attention to, and tapped on the screen, bringing up the GPS app and keying in their destination. " _Shit_ ," she said again, this time with a lot more conviction. "Looks like we might be here a while." She tilted the phone so Clarke could see the screen, and yeah, there was their route, outlined in glaring red for an indeterminate number of miles, their estimated travel time nearly twice what it ought to have been.

"We've got plenty of gas," Lexa added, although Clarke wasn't sure whether she was saying it to reassure Clarke or herself. "And air conditioning, and some snacks and water. We'll be fine."

Clarke nodded, and stared out the window at the unmoving landscape. Every once in a while they would inch forward a few feet, but mostly, they just sat there, listening to something innocuous and bland that she got the feeling neither of them was enjoying much. It was bad enough that one of the truck drivers put his rig in park and climbed out of the cab, walking down the line dividing the lanes to chat with another driver. 

An hour passed, and they made some vague attempt at small talk, but mostly they just absorbed themselves in their phones. Clarke texted her mother to let her know about the delay, and a few minutes later her mother texted back that there had been a multiple car accident with casualties, and that if there was any way for her to get off the highway and take another route, she probably should.

**CLARKE:** Okay. I'll tell her.

**MOM:** Tell who?

**CLARKE:** Oh. Lexa. My car is dead. She offered me a ride.

**MOM:** Have I met her?

**CLARKE:** No. I guess you will when we get there.

**MOM:** Okay.

That was it. Just 'Okay'. Maybe she would have been more concerned if she was traveling with a guy, or maybe she trusted Clarke's judgment and that she wouldn't get into a car with a complete stranger who might turn out to be a serial killer or something. 

Clarke relayed her mom's message to Lexa, who gave her a look that was maybe meant to be a smile but definitely came across as a grimace. "Unfortunately, we passed the last exit that would have gotten us away from this about half a mile before I realized there was a problem." She sighed. "I guess I should have used the GPS from the get-go."

"It's okay," Clarke said, even though it wasn't. Especially because the temperature in the car was starting to climb. Yes, there was air conditioning, and yes, it was cranked up as high as it would go, but the thing about car air conditioning systems, or at least this car's air conditioning system, was that it seemed to need the car to actually be in motion to get the air really flowing and cooling. 

So it was getting really fucking hot in here. 

Clarke tried not to think about it. She sipped the water bottle she'd brought, which was half-empty and the water disgustingly room temperature. Or car temperature, which was way too warm to be pleasant. 

"There's more water," Lexa said. "You don't need to ration it."

"If I drink too much..." She let the thought go unfinished, let Lexa fill in the blank. 

"Oh," she said. "Right."

Another hour passed, and they'd gone less than a quarter of a mile. It had gotten to the point where Lexa was putting the car in park until cars around them started to move, just so she didn't have to keep her feet on the pedals. They'd just crept forward another yard or two when Clarke happened to look down at Lexa's hand on the gearshift. The car was an automatic, so she didn't have to touch it much, but for some reason this time she'd left it resting there, her thumb absently tracing a circle over the top of it... over... and over... and over again.

Something deep inside of Clarke twitched... something that made its home between her legs. Because all she could think as she watched the motion of Lexa's thumb was that that same motion, applied to something other than the car... She didn't know where the thought came from, but once it was in her head, she couldn't shake it. She picked up her water bottle and gulped down the last few swallows, staring resolutely out the window and trying to think of something – anything – else.

_Stop,_ she thought. _You need to stop. I need you to stop._

But the words dried up on her tongue as she looked over at Lexa, and instead she pretended that she'd been turning to grab a bottle of water and a granola bar from the cooler stashed behind her seat. "Did you want anything?" she asked.

"I'm all right," Lexa said. "Thank you."

_Damn._ Because if she was eating or drinking, her hands would be occupied with something other than the endless swirling motion that had kindled the initial spark into a dull, aching throb. She took a swallow of the blessedly cold water and then wedge the bottle between her thighs, thinking maybe the cold would help dampen the unwanted feelings she was having.

But no, the pressure of it just made her want to squirm more, so she set the bottle down and tore into the granola bar instead, chewing hard on each bite, willing Lexa to change her mind and decide to grab something to eat after all.

Brake lights went off, and Lexa put the car back into drive... for all of about five seconds before they stopped again. Clarke through maybe she would move her hand, get distracted by something on her phone... but no. It stayed exactly where it was, doing exactly what it had been doing, and Clarke felt heat flush up through her body. She hoped that if Lexa noticed she would just chalk it up to the heat in the car. 

Another fifteen minutes, and Lexa finally reached back behind Clarke's seat and grabbed a bottle of water, cracking open the cap and taking several long swallows that drained a third of the bottle. Condensation dripped over her fingers and landed on her chest and legs, making her jump at the sudden chill. 

Clarke tried not to watch her as she then applied the cold bottle against the side of her neck, and she definitely tried not to watch as rivulets of water, or maybe sweat, slid down her chest and under the collar of her shirt, into the valley between her breasts. 

And fuck, now she was thinking about licking the water from Lexa's skin, about what her nipples would feel like against her lips and under her tongue, about the way that their texture would change from smooth skin to pebbled points...

Her breath caught and she straightened, forced herself to look away. "Maybe," she finally said, "we would be better off opening the windows?"

"Maybe," Lexa agreed, hitting the button to roll them down. 

The air outside was marginally less stifling than the air inside had been, and there was the vaguest hint of a breeze every once in a while. It made enough of a difference that Clarke was willing to put up with the added smell of car exhaust. 

She caught Lexa's hand moving out of the corner of her eye, watched it descend and just as it was about to land back on its gearshift perch, Clarke grabbed it.

Lexa's attention snapped to her, startled. "What?" she asked.

"Don't," Clarke said. "Just... don't."

Lexa's eyes widened. "Are you all right?"

"Fine," Clarke said. "Just... you were... it was driving me crazy."

Now her eyes narrowed and her eyebrows drew together in a frown. "What was driving you crazy?"

"You were just... touching the gearshift. Like... stroking it. I—" Clarke stopped, realizing how that sounded. Realizing that she was actually saying exactly what she'd been trying not to say, just in slightly different words. 

"And that was driving you crazy?" Lexa asked. Her tone was mild, almost inflection-less, but there was just the faintest hint of something that Clarke couldn't quite pinpoint. It might have been annoyance, or it might have been amusement, or it might have been... She wasn't sure she wanted to think about what else it might have been. 

"Doesn't it drive you crazy when you keep seeing something out of the corner of your eye?" Clarke asked. 

Lexa shook her head. "I can't say that I've ever had that experience," she said. "What exactly was I doing?" Now there was _definitely_ something in her voice that was much more akin to amusement than annoyance. "So I don't do it again," she added. "I would hate to drop you off to your parents in anything less than pristine condition." 

Clarke swallowed, her tongue darting out to wet her parched lips, and maybe she imagined it but she thought that Lexa's eyes flicked to her mouth when she did it, but when she looked back at her, she was focused entirely on her eyes. "With your thumb," she said. "You were... rubbing it... with your thumb." Heat flared in her cheeks... and elsewhere. 

"And that irritated you?" Lexa asked.

"Not irritated," Clarke said.

"Distracted?"

"Not... not exactly." 

"Hm." Lexa didn't look away as her hand went to the gearshift, long fingers draping over it before her thumb landed in the center of the circle at its head and traced slowly – so slowly – around the curve. 

It took every bit of self-restraint Clarke had not to squirm under Lexa's steady, direct gaze. She could hear her heartbeat echoing in her ears, and pounding through her entire body, but especially between her legs. She realized her mouth was hanging open and she closed it, and she thought she saw a flicker of something in Lexa's eyes. 

"Why does it bother you then?" Lexa asked, leaning in toward her, not quite crossing the invisible line down the center of the car, but close to it. 

"It—I—" Clarke licked her lips and swallowed again, leaning in too as if she was magnetically drawn to Lexa, to her presence, to her _lips_ , full and soft and... 

Lexa's hand left the gearshift and crossed over into Clarke's space, and Clarke looked down as it moved toward her lap. She shivered as Lexa's fingers dipped between her legs, brushing against her zipper before pulling away again. "Sorry," she said. "There was a crumb." She showed Clarke a tiny piece of granola that had apparently fallen when she was eating what felt like an eternity ago. Lexa's tongue extended to lick it from fingertip, and that was the last straw.

Clarke let out a soft, shuddering moan, and then reached across the space and grabbed the back of Lexa's head, pulling her in and crushing their mouths together, her tongue chasing Lexa's as it retreated back into her mouth, and the angle was awkward, the kiss sloppy, but it didn't matter. She didn't care. She was kissing Lexa, and Lexa was kissing her back, one hand in Clarke's hair and the other at her side, her thumb – that damnable thumb – just brushing the edge of her breast. 

" _Fuuuuuck..._ ," Clarke groaned as they finally pulled away from each other. She looked over at Lexa and saw that her cheeks were just as pink as Clarke's own, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she tried to catch her breath, her nipples poking out against the tight tank top she wore under a loose button-down with the sleeves rolled up. Her eyes were wide like she'd just been shown the eighth wonder of the world.

A horn sounded behind them, and their attention snapped back to the road, where traffic was finally moving. Lexa quickly turned to face the wheel and slammed the car into drive, easing off the brake and getting them moving again. 

They didn't talk about the kiss, or anything else, for the rest of the trip. They were both grateful when they were able to roll the windows back up because the air conditioning was working again. It even seemed to help cool a little of Clarke's ardor... as long as she kept her attention on things outside of the car. She updated her mom with their ETA and then checked various social media accounts to pass the time, hoping that Lexa wouldn't notice that Clarke was searching for her on every single one. 

By the time they pulled into Clarke's driveway, it was getting dark and they were both starving. Granola bars only did so much to stave off hunger. Lexa opened her door and got out, clearly intent on helping Clarke bring her things inside. 

"I've got it," Clarke said. "You don't—"

"I want to," Lexa said. Maybe she was just glad to be rid of her. Maybe she regretted what had happened between them. 

The door opened, and her mom and dad came out. She dropped what she was holding and ran to her father, hugging him tight and not letting go for a long time. He looked normal, like nothing had happened, but she didn't trust it.

"I'm fine," he said. "It was just a little cardiac episode. It's nothing to be worried about."

"It's your _heart_ , Dad," Clarke argued. "That's always something to be worried about."

He smiled. "What about yours?" he asked. "How is your heart doing?" His gaze drifted to Lexa and back again, and Clarke cleared her throat, feeling blood rushing to her cheeks and all the way to the tips of her ears. She cursed her fair skin and the fact that it didn't allow her to hide anything. 

"You must be Lexa," her mom said, offering a hand to her traveling companion. "I'm Abby, Clarke's mom."

Lexa shook it. "Nice to meet you," she said. 

"Thank you so much for giving Clarke a ride," her father chimed in. "I'm Jake."

"Nice to meet you," Lexa repeated, shaking his extended hand as well. 

"Did you want to stay for dinner?" Abby offered. "We held off, figuring you two would be hungry by the time you got here."

"That's all right," Lexa said. "I don't want to—"

"I insist," Jake interrupted. "It's the least we can do."

Lexa looked over at Clarke, and she nodded. It really did seem like the least that they could do. She should probably at least try to give Lexa some money for gas, too, even though she'd said it was on her way. Especially with the amount of gas that they'd used while at a standstill in traffic. 

"All right," she said. She grabbed some of Clarke's stuff from the back seat and followed them inside. Clarke couldn't help watching her as she took everything in. She seemed to linger on the pictures on the walls and the various trophies and awards on the mantle, several each for every member of the family. "Where should I put this?" she asked. 

"Oh," Clarke said. "In my room, I guess." She led her up the stairs and pushed open her door. It had been left untouched since she'd left at the end of winter break, as evidenced by the fine layer of dust on all the surfaces. She should do something about that, she thought, but knew that she probably wouldn't. "You can just put it on the floor. I'll deal with it later."

Lexa set the bin she was carrying down, and again her eyes swept the walls and the surface of her dresser, taking in the books on her bookshelf and the little knick-knacks and mementos that were everywhere. She smiled slightly as she looked at Clarke. "Have you lived here all your life?" she asked.

Clarke nodded. "I should probably go through everything at some point," she said. "Figure out what's really worth keeping."

Lexa looked like she was going to say something, but then she just pressed her lips together and nodded. "Do you mind if I use the bathroom?" she asked. 

"Oh!" Clarke said. "No, of course not. It's right across the hall." 

She waited for Lexa to be done, and they headed downstairs together. Dinner was her father's lasagna, one of Clarke's favorites, with salad and garlic bread. Conversation centered around how the semester was going so far, and the usual getting-to-know-you questions for Lexa, which she answered politely but without a lot of detail. 

"We'll clean up," Clarke offered, then looked at Lexa. "I mean, I will, if you need to get going."

"I can stay a little longer," Lexa said. "No one is—" She stopped. "I'm not in a hurry." 

They gathered up the dishes, rinsing them and putting them in the dishwasher, then packed the leftovers into plastic containers. Clarke handed Lexa a towel to dry her hands after she finished scrubbing the lasagna pan, and their fingers brushed. They both pulled away like they'd been shocked, or burned, and the towel dropped to the floor between them as they both let go.

"It's getting late," Jake said when they went back into the living room. "Maybe you should stay the night, get a fresh start in the morning." He was looking at Lexa with that easy, open smile that was so hard to say no to. 

Lexa looked at Clarke, and Clarke flashed to the moment in the car when her feelings – or hormones – had gotten the better of her. That was all it took for what felt like the majority of the blood in her body to rush from her extremities straight to her core. "It's been a long day," she said. "Getting a good night's rest before getting on the road again is probably a good idea."

This time it was Lexa licking her lips and swallowing, and Clarke hoped that it wasn't written all over her face just how much that made her want to repeat their earlier indiscretion. Was it an indiscretion, though? It wasn't like either of them were seeing anyone... or at least she wasn't, and she hadn't ever seen Lexa with anyone. That didn't mean she didn't have someone at home, but she really didn't seem like the cheating type. Not that Clarke knew her at all. 

"I'll go get my bag," Lexa said after a second, and made a break for the door. 

She was gone longer than it should have taken just to grab a bag and come back, and Clarke wondered if maybe she'd changed her mind and taken off into the night. Finally the door opened again and Lexa flashed a smile. "Had to shift some things around," she said, as if to explain the delay. 

"I'll show you the guest room," Clarke said. On the way there she grabbed clean towels from the linen closet. "I'll be right next door if you need anything," she said. 

"Thanks," Lexa said. "I think I'm going to shower, if that's all right."

"I think I probably will when you're done," Clarke said. "But guests first."

Lexa hesitated, then nodded and went into the bathroom, bag and all.

Clarke left her door open a crack and tried not to think about the fact that Lexa was naked just a few feet away. She tried not to think about water streaming down her skin, carving paths down her body, over her breasts and down her belly and lower...

Even as she tried not to think about it, her hands wandered down those same paths on her own body, and she wasn't imagining that it was Lexa popping the button on her shorts, sliding down the zipper, wasn't imagining her thumb on the gearshift as she wriggled her fingers under the waistband of her panties, wasn't...

She jerked her hand back as she heard footsteps in the hall and quickly put her clothing to rights. 

Not a second too soon, because there was a knock on her door, which pushed it open farther. "Can I come in?"

"Of course, Dad," she said, leaning back against the pillows propped at the head of her bed. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling great," he said, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Really. I don't care what your mom told you; it wasn't a big deal. I'm being closely monitored by the best doctors in the state. Your mom is making sure of that." He laid his hand on her knee and squeezed. "I'm not going anywhere any time soon. I'm going to be there when you graduate, and when you get married and have your first kid and hell, when that kid graduates and gets married and has kids, too." He smiled. "Assuming that you want that, of course. No pressure."

Clarke forced a smile. No pressure. And she knew that he didn't mean for there to be any, that he would be happy as long as she was happy, even if that happiness didn't come in the traditional white picket fence, two-point-five kids package. 

"That's sort of what I wanted to talk to you about," he said, his expression going more serious. "You know that your mother and I will love you no matter what, right? And that you don't have to hide anything from us."

Her forehead furrowed. "I'm not hiding anything," she said. "Why would you think—" She stopped, caught somewhere between wanting to laugh and die of embarrassment. "Lexa?"

"Yes, Lexa," he said. "If she's... more than just a friend, that's okay. That's great, if she makes you happy."

"She's..." Clarke glanced toward the door, listening for the second, but the shower was still running. "I don't know what she is," she admitted softly. "We don't really know each other that well. She just offered to give me a ride since it was on her way home and my hunk of junk decided that now was the time to give up the ghost." 

"Right," he said. "We'll have to see what we can do about that. But... are you sure? About her?" His eyes were wide, his expression so ready to be understanding, to reassure her that really, it was okay to admit that she had a girlfriend. 

"I'm sure," Clarke said. "We haven't done more than—" She stopped again, heat flooding her face for what felt like the millionth time that day. "We just kissed, but it was a heat of the moment kind of thing. Emphasis on the heat. It wasn't..." She bit her lip. "It wasn't anything. It was just..." She shrugged.

"Okay, sweetie," her father said, squeezing her knee again. "Just know that whatever happens, Mom and I love and support you, and you can talk to us about anything, any time."

"I know," Clarke said, leaning in to hug him. 

They stayed that way for a long minute, but finally they both heard the shower turn off, and he let go and stood up. "I promise we won't embarrass you if you both come out of the same room in the morning," he teased. "Not much, anyway." 

"Dad!"

He winked and stepped out of her room just as Lexa emerged from the bathroom. He smiled at her, and she flashed a crooked smile back before looking past him to Clarke, who rolled her eyes and shrugged, as if to say, 'Parents. What are you going to do?' 

Lexa's smile steadied a bit, and she went into the guest room. Clarke took her place in the bathroom, stripping down and climbing into the shower, where she let lukewarm water wash over her skin, hoping that it would dampen her feelings as well as wash the layer of sweat from her skin. She kept the shower short, not letting herself get distracted from the task at hand, no matter how tempted she was.

Before going to bed, she poked her head into the guest room, where Lexa was sitting propped on the bed, reading. "Is there anything you need?" she asked.

Lexa looked up, blinked slowly at her from behind what Clarke assumed were reading glasses, and of _course_ she looked simultaneously stunning and adorable in them. "I'm fine," she said. "Thank you."

"Okay," Clarke said. "If there's anything..."

"I know where to find you," Lexa said, a flicker of a smile curving her lips, but it was enough to bring a warmth to her eyes that did terrible and wonderful things to Clarke... and her resolve. 

"Good night," she said. 

"Good night, Clarke," Lexa replied. 

Clarke left both doors open a crack. She wasn't sure why; she didn't normally sleep with her door open. She told herself it was so would hear Lexa if she got up in the night, in case she needed anything. She told herself she was just being a good host.

She went to bed, expecting to toss and turn for a while, but apparently being in a car for hours, melting in the heat, tired a person out more than she would have expected, because within minutes she was out.

She woke when her bed shifted under the weight of someone sitting down on it. Her eyes cracked open, expecting it to be one of her parents checking on her, but no, it was Lexa, pale in the moonlight that crept in around the shades, and god, so fucking beautiful, even in a ratty old t-shirt so worn it was practically translucent and boxers. 

"Clarke," she said softly. "You said if there was anything—"

She didn't get the chance to finish, because Clarke reached out and pulled her down, kissing her softly, not holding back anything she was feeling. She traced her tongue over the curve of Lexa's lips, and they parted, the kiss deepening, growing more intense, almost desperate, and finally Lexa gave in and kicked her legs up, laying down beside and half on top of Clarke as Clarke's grasping hands rucked up the hem of her shirt to get to her skin. 

Lexa pulled back from the kiss, looking down at Clarke with wide eyes. "I've wanted to do that for so long," she whispered. "Every time I saw you... But I didn't think you knew I existed."

Clarke snorted. "Everyone knows you exist, Lexa." 

"But you were the only one I cared about," Lexa said.

Clarke answered that by drawing her back down into the kiss, glad that it muffled the sound she made when Lexa's leg slid between her thighs, and then again, louder, deeper, when her hand slid under the waistband of her shortie pajama bottoms, through the patch of curls, and into the slick, throbbing heat of her core.

It wasn't her thumb, but the motion was the same, and Clarke was sure that Lexa was well aware of that fact, that it was deliberate, because she might not know her well, but she was pretty sure she knew enough to know that nothing that Lexa did was an accident. She rocked her hips into the touch, breaking the kiss to pant and moan against Lexa's neck when it became impossible to get enough oxygen into her body while kissing her. The moans turned to something close to a whine, and then to a single sharp cry as she shuddered into one of the most intense orgasms she'd ever had. 

Lexa's fingers continued to stroke, gently, lightly, not where she was most sensitive, but all around, drawing out every last spark and twitch of pleasure before she withdrew her hand and let it rest on Clarke's hip. 

Clarke turned her head to look at her, blinking in amazement at the way the light caught the planes and angles of Lexa's face, rendering her somehow more beautiful than she already was. She tipped up her face, and Lexa kissed her tenderly, like she might be fragile after what she'd just been through. Clarke wasn't sure she was wrong, but it wasn't her lips that were likely to shatter. 

"Can I tell you something?" Lexa asked. 

"Anything," Clarke said, teasing her fingers along Lexa's spine. 

"This wasn't on my way home." Lexa looked at her like she thought she might get angry at the admission. 

"Then why...?" But she'd already answered that, hadn't she? At least in a way. If she'd been thinking about Clarke, wanting Clarke... She couldn't have known that this was going to happen, though. It wasn't as if she was the one who'd made the first move, even. Not intentionally, anyway. Clarke was confident that she'd had no idea what she'd been doing to Clarke with her unconscious handling of the gearshift until she'd mentioned it. 

"You needed a ride," Lexa said, "and I wasn't in any rush to get home, so..." She nuzzled into Clarke's neck, kissing her there. 

"Where is home?" Clarke asked now, realizing that she hadn't before. 

"Where the heart is," Lexa said. "Isn't that how the saying goes?" She forced a smile. "Massachusetts, currently. That's where my father is stationed. But he's not actually home."

"What about your mom?" Lexa just shook her head. "So you were going home to an empty house?" Lexa shrugged, then nodded. "I'm sorry," Clarke said. 

"It is what it is," Lexa answered. 

"I have a better idea," Clarke said, her fingers trailing up Lexa's side, under her shirt, and she felt the gust of her breath against her ear. "Stay here." 

"I can't," Lexa said. "I don't want to—"

Clarke let her hand drift back down to Lexa's hip, working into her boxer shorts and between her legs. "With me," she added for emphasis. 

"—impose," Lexa finished, pressing her hips into the touch.

Clarke dipped her fingers down, drawing up the slick heat of Lexa's arousal through her folds, teasing over her clit before diving down again. "Stay with me," she whispered, circling her opening. "Please..."

"Please..." Lexa echoed. "Clarke..."

Clarke slid two fingers into her, felt her tighten around them, and thrust gently in and out, Lexa doing half the work as she rocked her hips, grinding against the heel of Clarke's hand, her teeth occasionally grazing Clarke's collarbone as she moaned. 

"Stay with me," Clarke repeated, sensing that Lexa was near the edge. She moved back up to her clit, circling it once, twice, and then on the third stroke Lexa bucked, her back arching, her helpless keening moan swallowed by Clarke's lips on hers. 

"Stay," she said one more time as Lexa collapsed against her, spent, trembling slightly in the aftermath. "My father already thinks we're together. Just stay... make everyone happy." 

Lexa laughed softly. "Okay," she said. "But only because it will make your father happy."

Clarke kissed her again, slow and soft and sleepy, almost gone until Lexa pulled away. 

"Should I..." Lexa asked, shifting like she meant to move, but Clarke just pulled her back into place, shaking her head. 

"You belong here," she said, "with me."

Lexa closed her eyes, her fingers curling under Clarke's shirt to stroke her skin absently as they settled against each other like two puzzle pieces that you weren't sure fit together until they did, perfectly. "If you insist."

Clarke smiled and kissed her one last time. "I do."


End file.
